


It Might Get Better From Here

by otherscott



Series: EXO Mob AU [8]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Mob AU, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-28 23:56:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3874756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otherscott/pseuds/otherscott
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jongdae has gotten used to sleeping with his boss but one day it comes to a screeching halt. He attempts to find a new friend to sleep with and things get tangled along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. jongdae has to dash

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys!!! this is from the same au as the crisis, and happens a couple months after the crisis ends :')  
> if this doesn't make complete sense as a standalone then i would recommend to read the other fic lol
> 
> basically suho is a mob boss, jongdae works for him, and they've been sleeping together for a while.  
> thank you so much for reading!!! it really means the world to me <3

Jongdae was laying in Suho’s bed with his ass in the air when Suho’s phone went off, and since he was so used to Suho immediately checking it no matter what they were doing, Jongdae didn’t even bat an eyelash when Suho stopped all movement and looked over at his phone. He thought maybe he should be a little more assertive, since they were fucking having sex and Suho playing around on his phone during it was kind of rude, but Suho was his boss and he didn’t want to say anything out of line.

“I’m sorry,” Suho prefaced before pulling his fingers out of Jongdae’s hole and crawling over to his bedside table on his knees. Jongdae whimpered a little at the sudden empty feeling and put his face down in the pillow to keep himself from saying anything he might regret. Suho was a goddamn mob boss and had to be connected to the outside world at all times, even when Jongdae was trying to get laid. It was a frustrating existence but it was the one he had been working with ever since he and Suho had started fucking regularly.

Suho picked up his phone and looked at it, and when Jongdae glanced over at him he saw the quizzical expression on Suho’s face and laughed a little. “Sehun?” Suho questioned, and then silenced the call, returning back to his spot behind Jongdae. He swirled his finger around Jongdae’s hole for a moment before putting it back inside and making Jongdae groan.

“Is everything alright?” Jongdae asked.

“It’s fine,” Suho said shortly, and apparently that was the end of that because he pulled his finger out of Jongdae’s hole and grunted. “I want to put it in, can I do that, Jongdae-yah?”

“Mm, yeah, please,” Jongdae told him, closing his eyes and breathing slowly. He felt Suho pushing his cock at his entrance and moaned softly, then got louder when he felt Suho’s entire length inside of him. Suho put his hands on Jongdae’s hips and started to rock back and forth slowly, and Jongdae felt a familiar rush of appreciation for his job. He really enjoyed getting to take a break every other month or so to come back home and have great sex with his wealthy boss. He felt a tiny bit sleazy but he wouldn’t dare tell a soul what he was doing, so it didn’t feel too bad.

Suho seemed to like him a lot too, or at least that’s what Jongdae had picked up from the invitations to come over that arrived on his phone like clockwork every time he returned to Korea. He didn’t seem interested in a relationship or anything, which Jongdae was completely fine with. He didn’t really want to get involved with someone as dangerous as Suho, and spending enough time with him had led him to understand that Suho could be kind of a douchebag. Jongdae liked kind guys who didn’t answer their phone during sex, and Suho was that only some of the time.

A few minutes later Jongdae was riding back on Suho’s cock feeling himself nearing orgasm when Suho’s movements slowed to a hesitant stop. Jongdae made an annoyed sound and turned to look at him, and saw Suho staring at his bedroom door, looking upset.

“Are you alright? What happened?” Jongdae said, his breathing a tiny bit labored, and when Suho pulled his cock out of him he groaned out loud, both from the hot way it felt and the disappointment.

“I heard something. I think I heard my garage door opening. Fuck!” Suho stepped off of the bed and walked over to the bedside table on wobbly legs, and Jongdae breathed slowly, letting himself relax on the bed. He watched Suho pick up his phone and look at it, then curse again under his breath. “I wish they would tell me when they’re going to come over, damnit!”

“What, what’s going on?” Jongdae frowned.

“My uncles use my house to store things, they know the code to get into the garage and all that. They probably want some weapons or something. And they never fucking text me before they come over, they just show up!” Suho furrowed his brow while he looked towards his door. “Or it could be my father. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he rambled before making a beeline for his closet. Jongdae watched him throw a robe on himself and was a little amused at how flustered Suho seemed. He had never seen him in a situation where he wasn’t in control and apparently Suho wasn’t very good at dealing with that.

When Suho looked decent enough he went over to his bedside table to pick up his phone and take it with him. “I’ll be right back, _stay here_ , okay, do _not_ leave.” Suho blinked at Jongdae and Jongdae nodded at him.

“I won’t go anywhere.”

“Okay, thank you. Fucking hate this. My dick is hard as hell right now and I have to go talk to some terrible old man. Ugh.” Suho grumbled as he left his room, shutting the door behind him, and Jongdae stared up at the ceiling, still panting somewhat. He felt tired and hot and a tiny bit anxious. He trusted that Suho could keep the visitor away from his bedroom but it was still scary to him. If someone caught him here he had no idea what would happen. He might end up getting shot.

That wasn’t something he wanted to think about. He was super horny but he didn’t feel like touching himself, not when there was the possibility of Suho handling this visitor thing quickly and then returning to pick up where he left off. He rolled over onto his side to grope around the bedside table for his phone, and when he found it he opened a puzzle game to take his mind off of whatever was happening outside of the room.

He completed a few levels and made a sound of dissent when he received a text message that took him out of the game. He saw that it was from Suho and his heart skipped a beat. Oh fuck this probably wasn’t good. He opened the text and frowned at it.

_Go into the bathroom right now_

Well fuck. Jongdae wasn't going to do that, he wouldn't reduce himself to some scared little puppy hiding in the bathroom, he thought to himself as he scurried off to safety. He closed the bathroom door behind him and locked it after he thought about it. What was going on? He turned the light on so he could see himself in the mirror, then maybe thought he should turn it off, just in case whoever was visiting saw the light shining from under the door. Maybe it wasn’t that big a deal. He kept the light on so he could study how terrified his reflection looked.

There was silence for a short while, and the absolute lack of action made the hairs on the back of Jongdae’s neck stand straight up. He wanted to text Suho and ask him what was happening, but didn’t want to distract him from anything if it was really serious. Fuck if he got caught here with his boss that would be bad for everyone involved. Hopefully this would be over soon.

When he heard voices enter Suho’s bedroom his breath hitched in his throat, and he leaned next to the door to try and hear what was going on. He heard Suho speaking softly, and was calmed a little from how relaxed his voice sounded. Maybe this wasn’t too intense. Another voice started speaking, this one a little bit louder, and Jongdae racked his brain to identify it when he thought it sounded familiar.

Jongdae heard the new voice say “Suho hyung” and his eyes shot open. That was definitely Sehun. Oh god now Jongdae was really glad Suho had told him to hide, if Sehun knew that Jongdae was sleeping with their boss Sehun would run around telling everyone. Jongdae had grown to like Sehun since Sehun had spent those two months in China living and working with him, but he was aware that Sehun could be a mouthy brat sometimes.

Why the hell was Sehun here? How did he even get inside? Last time Jongdae had checked, Sehun was an even lower rank than he was. There was no way he had the access codes to get into Suho’s house. Unless. Unless, awh, fuck. Jongdae then remembered how Sehun and Lu Han had broken up a couple months ago because Sehun had been cheating on Lu Han all the time with Suho. Now this entire thing felt foolish.

He had thought that Suho and Sehun had broken things off after the mess with Lu Han but apparently not, Jongdae observed with his ear to the door, listening to the two of them talk softly to each other. There were unnatural breaks in the conversation where there was no sound at all and it took Jongdae a while to realize they were probably making out at those points. He rolled his eyes and refrained from making an audible groan. Was this really happening? Was he supposed to be afraid of this?

After a minute he heard Suho moaning softly and again had to keep himself from complaining out loud. That hard dick was supposed to be his. This entire thing felt stupid and pointless now. He heard Sehun’s voice mumbling something to Suho and Suho replying hurriedly, and Jongdae wondered if Sehun was giving him some kind of rushed handjob. Sehun had probably been curious as to why Suho had an erection when he came in, Jongdae wondered what Suho had told him.

With his ear to the door Jongdae heard Sehun and Suho exchanging some sweet nothings that he felt guilty for overhearing, so he stepped away and looked at himself in the mirror, pursing his lips. Fuck. Were Suho and Sehun dating now? Jongdae wouldn’t put it past his boss to keep sleeping with him even though he had a boyfriend. If that was true then Jongdae felt kind of bad about being the other man. Sehun got on his nerves sometimes but Jongdae had always respected him.

 _Fuck that, Jongdae, Suho hyung didn’t tell you shit. It’s not your fault._ He sighed as he looked towards the door. Suho was some ridiculous level of sleazy for getting a handjob when he knew damn well that Jongdae was hiding in the bathroom. He was going to try to yell at him when this was all over.

Jongdae sat down on the floor and attempted to refocus his attention back to his puzzle game, not wanting to listen to whatever was going on in the bedroom. He had half a mind to finish jerking himself off, since it looked unlikely that Suho was going to be able to help him out with that anytime soon.

Jerking off on the floor of his boss’ bathroom didn’t sound very appealing, though, so he resigned himself to playing through his game and letting his erection die. After he made his way through twenty levels he moved towards the door to listen for conversation, and didn’t hear anything. Maybe they had gone into a different room. He picked up his phone and sent a quick text to Suho asking him if he could leave.

He really wanted to just grab a cab and go home right now, but didn’t want to wander around the house if Sehun was around. He hoped Suho would reply to his text quickly but he didn’t, and Jongdae sighed, rising to his feet and turning the doorknob carefully. He cracked the door open and when he looked into the bedroom he saw it was empty, so he walked into it and dashed around putting his clothes back on. When he was fully dressed he checked his phone once more, but there was still no reply from his boss. Damnit. He’d have to sneak out himself then, since he really didn’t want to stay here like a fugitive.

He opened the app he used to call cabs, but put the idea on hold when he made his way out of Suho’s bedroom and into the hallway. Ahh this was probably a stupid thing he was doing, but for some reason he felt like he could be sneaky enough to avoid Sehun. He knew the exact route he’d have to take through the house to leave out the front door and it wasn’t difficult at all. He could manage this as long as Sehun wasn’t in the living room.

When Jongdae tip-toed to the living room Sehun was sitting in an armchair in plain sight and Jongdae’s heart nearly burst out of his chest. Fucking fuck fuck this was so stupid, why did he try to leave?! He was going to get caught! His brain was screaming at his feet to move but he was frozen standing in the doorway, staring at Sehun’s profile and feeling like he wanted to die right there.

He felt like he had been standing there for an hour when Sehun’s voice called out. “Suho hyung,” he sounded, looking up from his phone to look straight ahead into the empty fireplace and then to the doorway. He blinked when he saw Jongdae, and then his eyes widened when he registered that the other body in the room wasn’t Suho’s. “Jongdae hyung?”

“Se....hun.” Jongdae said slowly. He had absolutely no idea what to say right now. Fuck he should’ve come up with some story before stumbling around the house like a clueless douchebag. Sehun kept staring at him and Jongdae had no idea what to follow up with.

“Jongdae hyung,” Sehun repeated, quieter this time, and the sound made Jongdae frown. He couldn’t tell if Sehun had figured it out already but he looked upset, and Jongdae felt bad for it. He took a step into the room as if he was going to comfort Sehun, but then hesitated, still feeling awkward.

“Sehunnie, what are you saying?” Jongdae looked to the kitchen doorway to see Suho stepping out of it, and when Suho glanced at him his eyes went wide and he took a step back like he was trying to escape. Sehun shot out of his armchair more energetically than Jongdae had expected to see and went over to Suho.

“What are you doing? Why’s Jongdae hyung here? Why are you running away?” Sehun asked rapidly, and Suho looked from side to side, everywhere but at Sehun. Sehun glared at him and Suho closed his eyes.

“I’m not running away.”  
  
“Why’s Jongdae hyung here?”

“Jongdae and I were hanging out before you came over, but I think he’s gotta go home now,” Suho said carefully.

“Yeah,” Jongdae agreed, finding the chance to escape. Sehun glanced over at him with his bottom lip bit into his mouth and Jongdae felt nervous.

“What is this? Don’t lie to me. Why would you be hanging out with Jongdae hyung? You’ve never mentioned him before,” Sehun told Suho, lifting a hand to weakly smack Suho’s chest, and Suho sighed heavily.

“Sehunnie.”

“Don’t call me that! Tell me what’s going on!” Sehun raised his voice and Suho closed his eyes, looking stressed and like he was trying to get in some quick self-meditation before responding to Sehun. “You greasy douchebag!” Sehun yelled, and Suho opened his eyes to look at him. “You’re lying to me!”

“I’m not lying to you about anything.”

“Are you for real? I thought we were being serious ever since I got back from China!”

“I wasn’t a part of that conversation,” Suho said quickly, and Sehun raised a hand to strike Suho across the face. Jongdae felt his eyes go wide and his breath stopped in his throat. He knew Sehun was headstrong but he had never imagined him to be so _bold_. Jongdae couldn’t see himself hitting a mob boss in a million years.

Suho pursed his lips and stared down at the floor, looking like he wanted to raise hell but was thinking better of it. He didn’t say anything for a while and Sehun scowled at him. “I want to be serious with you! I _wanted_ to, at least! What the hell, you sleep around on me so much!”

Jongdae felt weird watching this happen, but didn’t think he could slink across the living room without being noticed. He really didn’t want to watch his fuck buddy get into a heated argument with Sehun of all people, especially not since he felt so damn guilty. He had caused this and now he was going to have to deal with watching it.

Not a lot seemed to be happening though, since Suho was just standing there refusing to interact with anybody. After a moment Sehun got fed up and turned his angry eyebrows onto Jongdae, and Jongdae jumped a little just from the furious expression on Sehun’s face.

“He’s cheating on you,” Sehun spat in Jongdae’s direction, and Jongdae blinked.

“S-Suho hyung?”

“He and I are _dating_ \--” Sehun raised his hand and pushed on Suho’s chest, and Suho sighed heavily, not raising a hand to push back. “--and we have been dating for _months_. I don’t know how long you’ve been fucking him for but he’s cheating on you.”

“We’re not-- I didn’t-- I wasn’t-- I didn’t think we were dating,” Jongdae sputtered, not knowing which direction to go in. Sehun stared at him for a moment, glanced at Suho, and then looked back to Jongdae.

“You’re just fucking him?”

Jongdae frowned deeply, not wanting to admit to it but feeling like he was backed into a corner. “Yeah.”

“I...alright.” Sehun huffed a little and raised a hand to motion aimlessly in Jongdae’s direction. “I wasn’t expecting to see you, Jongdae hyung!”

Jongdae managed a weak laugh. “Yeah, uhm, I could say the same to you.”

“I didn’t even think you were gay!”

Jongdae didn’t feel like having the ‘actually I’m bisexual’ talk right now. “Well.”

“Don’t come around here anymore, alright?” Sehun was trying to glare at him but Jongdae could tell the expression was muted, and he appreciated that. Sehun was a good kid despite having to put up with this nonsense.

“Alright, I won’t,” Jongdae laughed again, and then Sehun sighed shakily, looking back at Suho.

“Would you fucking say something?”

“I’d like to talk to you in private,” Suho said, his voice quiet, and Sehun growled, storming away from him and towards Jongdae. Jongdae stiffened a bit but Sehun just walked right by him and down into the hallway, and Jongdae watched him for a moment, observing the pained expression on his face before looking back at Suho.

He thought his boss looked positively small standing there, but Jongdae didn’t feel pity for him. He frowned and walked up to him, and when Suho raised his eyes to look at him he tried to turn the frown into a snarl. “You cheated on him!”

“I really didn’t think Sehun and I were that serious,” Suho said slowly, and Jongdae scowled.

“He obviously did! You can’t just fuck with people like that, Suho hyung, especially not him! Sehun is like nineteen!”

“I know, I know, I didn’t think Sehun was going to get like this,” Suho rolled his eyes quickly and the display of dismissiveness angered Jongdae so much he raised a hand to smack Suho across the face, albeit much lighter than Sehun had struck him.

“You sound like an asshole!” Jongdae yelled, and then felt himself retreating when Suho raised a shaky hand to touch at the spot on his face where Jongdae had hit him. Suho looked at him with tired eyes and Jongdae huffed at him, feeling like he had gotten away with something he would never try again for as long as he lived. “You should’ve told me you had someone! I didn’t come here to help you cheat on your boyfriend, Suho hyung!”

“I told you, I didn’t think I had a boyfriend. I’m going to talk to him.”

“You’d better! And you’d better buy him a bouquet of flowers and let him talk shit about you to all his friends for a month! I’m really mad that you’d do this, I don’t know you too well Suho hyung, but I didn’t think you’d do something like this to Sehun! You’re supposed to take care of him!” Jongdae ranted, and then breathed slowly, feeling a little bit better. Now that he had gotten all of that off of his chest he felt positively terrified that Suho was going to rage at him for mouthing off.

“I know,” Suho mumbled, looking away, and Jongdae let himself breathe.

“I’m going to go home.” Jongdae told him.

“Alright.”

“Don’t text me again to come over.” Jongdae flattened his lips into a straight line and looked Suho directly in his face. “Okay?”

“Don’t ever hit me again,” Suho responded, his eyes regaining the quiet authority that Jongdae had grown to fear, and Jongdae hesitated before nodding.

“That was really impulsive of me and I’m sorry, hyung.”

“Alright. I’m going to talk to Sehun. Have a good ride home.” Suho moved past Jongdae to go in the direction Sehun had stormed off in and Jongdae watched him for a moment before sighing and going to the front door to leave.

When he was outside he opened his taxi app again and called a cab to come to his location, then sat down on Suho’s porch, feeling like an asshole. Sehun had looked so goddamn hurt and Jongdae couldn’t help but feel like part of it was his fault, even though that was probably not true. This was all Suho’s mess and he would deal with it.

Jongdae really hoped Suho would stop texting him now because even though they had great sex Jongdae wasn’t going to put up with this anymore. Jongdae groaned when he realized he had lost his only male fuck buddy. How the hell was he going to get laid now? He had grown to look forward to the avalanche of anal sex every time he returned home to Korea, and now he couldn’t have that. His mind wandered to that one time he had slept with Yixing and he groaned even louder. That was definitely not an option. Fuck this, he was tired and horny and wanted to go home. He hadn’t even gotten off today. This entire thing was a terrible waste of time.

 

 


	2. jongdae gets drinks with friends

Two days before Jongdae was set to return to China to continue working, he got a text from Suho asking if he wanted to come to dinner with him. He scoffed at his phone and dropped it down to his bed, returning to getting dressed to go out with Chanyeol and Baekhyun. Who the hell did Suho think he was? Other than an incredibly powerful mobster. Jongdae had been forced to slink out of Suho’s house like a dirty mistake last week, and he didn’t want to spend time with his boss at all, especially not if he was dating Sehun.

Jongdae tightened his tie around his throat and looked at himself in his mirror. He looked good, dressed up enough for whatever bar Baekhyun had picked out for them, but still looking young and fresh enough to hop into a club if the night decided to go in that direction. Jongdae didn’t know exactly what he and his friends were going to do tonight, but whatever it was they were going to have fun, since this was probably the last day they were going to be able to hang out together. Tomorrow Chanyeol and Baekhyun had to go to work and Jongdae wanted to visit his parents.

He picked up his phone again once the initial rage at Suho had subsided, and he typed “ _Aren’t you dating Sehun?_ ” and sent it before he could convince himself not to. He probably just should’ve ignored the text but damnit, Suho was pissing him off with his casual dismissal of his boyfriend.

Jongdae bounced over to his bathroom to put some last-minute touches on his hair when his phone went off again, and he darted out of the bathroom to check it, feeling foolish for reacting so quickly. He was more emotionally invested in this than he wanted to be.

" _Sehun and I are not dating_ ", was what the text from Suho said, and Jongdae groaned out loud at it. He didn’t believe a word of that. Apparently Suho had expected that, because a follow-up text arrived before Jongdae could even begin to think of a response. " _And before you call me a liar, Sehun isn’t even speaking to me right now. So I’m pretty positive we’re not dating. Even if we were before we’re not anymore."_

Jongdae stared at this. If Sehun and Suho were done for real then he wouldn’t feel like he was side piece...but this entire situation had turned him sour on his boss. He wouldn’t be able to look at him without wanting to yell at him for what he did to Sehun. Damn his moral compass preventing him from getting laid. He pursed his lips and put his phone down. He shouldn’t do this. If he really wanted to hang out with Suho he would do it the next time he was back home in a few months, after the dust from this had settled and he was able to think about it with a clear mind.

Besides, he already had plans tonight. He informed Suho of this and then slipped his phone into his pocket. He wasn’t going to let this ruin his night. He was going out to have fun with his best friends, and that was that. Screw his sleazy boss.

* * *

 

Jongdae was three drinks in and watching Baekhyun wave his hands about animatedly when Baekhyun finished his story, took a sip from his own fourth beer, and declared that they should break into their office tonight. Chanyeol snorted at the idea and Jongdae furrowed his brow. “Baekhyun, we can’t break into the office, isn’t there an alarm?”

“I know the passcode into the building,” Baekhyun nodded.

“It’s owned by the _mob_ ,” Jongdae said, dropping his voice low at the last part so nobody around would hear them.

“We’re _in_ the mob,” Baekhyun said in a mocking tone, and Jongdae grunted. He didn’t know how to argue with that. If Baekhyun could promise they wouldn’t get in trouble then it sounded interesting. He hadn’t been to the Korean offices in a few months, and it would be fun to look around while there was nobody else there.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Jongdae said, already deciding that this sounded more fun than going to a club and getting sweaty and tired with no outcome. He didn’t feel like putting in the effort to get laid tonight, and was content to just mess around with his friends. Baekhyun turned his smile on Chanyeol, who rocked back and forth a little bit in his chair.

Chanyeol opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Jongdae had noticed that Chanyeol had been uncharacteristically quiet all night, but he didn’t bring it up at all, afraid that it might upset Chanyeol further. “We can do that,” Chanyeol said finally, and Baekhyun smacked his arm.

“What, were you buffering?” Baekhyun laughed at himself and then put his index finger on his nose. “I don’t want to pay.”

Jongdae immediately mimicked the movement, having played this game with Baekhyun and Chanyeol many times before, and Chanyeol looked in between his two friends before sighing and smiling tiredly, which made Baekhyun burst out laughing. He smacked Chanyeol’s arm again as Chanyeol pulled out his wallet.

Jongdae didn’t think he was drunk but he could tell there was some level of intoxication there, he observed as he stumbled out onto the street, holding Chanyeol’s arm close to him. He watched Baekhyun call a cab for them and slipped in the middle seat in the back of the car when it came. He listened to Baekhyun chatter away about a woman at the bar who had a pair of thighs he liked, and put his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder when he felt tired enough. Baekhyun made a breathy sound but didn’t knock him away.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” Baekhyun said after about a minute, moving a little to shake Jongdae off of him. Jongdae laughed and then was struck with the thought that maybe that was Baekhyun’s casual homophobia. Baekhyun hadn’t changed a bit towards him ever since he had come out to him as bisexual, but sometimes Jongdae wondered what he thought of him.

He didn’t want to dwell too much on that tonight, though. When the cab pulled outside of their building Chanyeol was the first one out, and Jongdae and Baekhyun followed closely, Jongdae pulling his blazer around him in the chill of the wind. Baekhyun darted ahead of them and led them to their building, swiping in with a card and then bringing them to the elevator.

“Our office is on the third floor,” he said, and Jongdae scoffed.

“I remember that much. I used to work here, y’know.”

“Yeah, before you volunteered to ruin your life in China,” Baekhyun said. He seemed surprised when the elevator doors opened, and then motioned for everyone to get inside.

Chanyeol was too quiet for Jongdae’s liking, Jongdae thought as he watched Chanyeol’s eyes drunkenly gaze at the light-up number pads on the wall. “Are you alright?” He asked him, and when Baekhyun had pressed the number three on the wall he glanced over to look at them.

“I’m fine,” Chanyeol said with a little smile. “I’m having fun.”

“You’ve been kind of quiet all night.”

“I’ve had a long day,” Chanyeol said, lifting a hand to rub at his eye, and Baekhyun made a sound of dissent.

“Are you still hung up about last week?” Baekhyun asked.

“What happened last week?” Jongdae glanced in between his friends. They hadn’t told him about anything remarkable, especially not something that would make them upset. Chanyeol just shrugged and Baekhyun eyed him carefully.

“What happened?” Jongdae repeated, not liking being ignored. The elevator doors opened and Baekhyun stepped out, motioning for his friends to follow. A few doors down there was a passlock on the wall and Baekhyun began to press a code into it.

“We had to dump a body,” Baekhyun said plainly. “Chanyeol didn’t like it.” The door unlocked and he opened it for them.

“Are you serious? Of course he wouldn’t!” Jongdae said, and he was a little surprised at the sound of Chanyeol laughing at him. He turned around to see Chanyeol’s smile and was comforted by it. That was the face he was the most used to seeing on his friend, not the weird solemn grimace he had been showing all night.

“It’s whatever, it’s over now,” Chanyeol said, and then he furrowed his brow as Baekhyun excitedly darted over to another door with a passcode once they were inside this new hallway. Jongdae recognized this hallway as the main office for their division, and was able to pick out the rooms easily, there was Jongin and Sehun’s shared office right by the entrance, and Baekhyun’s office further down. Kyungsoo’s was the farthest away, near a corner that turned and led to where Suho’s office was. It was a small office but it was kept for paperwork purposes only, which Jongdae was the most used to. He always thought Kris kept his office building a lot nicer.

This door that Baekhyun was pressing a passcode into was unfamiliar to Jongdae, though, and he didn’t like the way Chanyeol was looking at them. “What’s this, Baekhyun?” Jongdae asked him.

“This is the armory, have you ever been in here before?” Baekhyun asked, unlocking the door. The door made a loud clunking sound that Jongdae didn’t like.

“No, I don’t think I have. This is where you guys keep the weapons?”

“Baekhyun, we shouldn’t go in there,” Chanyeol said. Baekhyun laughed and smiled at him.

“Says who? I have the password to get in, so I should be allowed in whenever I want! I just wanna show Jongdae the new assault rifles.”

“We have _assault rifles_?” Jongdae asked. He had only ever seen the regular old handguns that had been issued around when he first started working there. Baekhyun nodded with a devilish grin, going inside the room, and Jongdae didn’t know what else to do but follow. Chanyeol waited by the doorway, and Jongdae turned around and motioned him to follow him in. “Come in, field mouse,” he told him, and Chanyeol sighed audibly but came in after him anyway.

“Yeah, they’re not for us, they’re for the guys outside the city. We’re just keeping them here. Ahh, I don’t know where they are,” Baekhyun said as Jongdae looked around the room. The walls were lined with cabinets, all of them locked with their own number pad, and the center of the room had a table with similarly locked drawers under it. There was a paper left out on the table and Jongdae looked at it, registering it to be an inventory list of what was in the room.

“Should this be left out?” Jongdae said, picking the paper up and waving it in the air. Baekhyun turned around to look at it, and then snorted.

“That’s Sehun’s job, I don’t know.”

“Sehun’s in charge of the weapons?”

“I know he makes sure everything’s in the same place as it was yesterday, I guess he’s in charge of the weapons, then.” Baekhyun said.

Jongdae had a fleeting thought of Sehun stealing a bunch of weapons and opening fire into Suho’s mansion, and then shook it out of his head. That obviously wouldn’t happen. At least it wouldn’t happen while Jongdae was in the country, so he didn’t have to worry about it. “So he’ll be the one to catch us? Since we shouldn’t be in here.”

Chanyeol snorted a laugh and Baekhyun made an unamused face at Jongdae. “We’re not gonna get caught, least of all by Sehun. He can barely do his job when he’s here.”

“Alright, fine,” Jongdae said, not feeling like arguing any longer. Baekhyun found the cabinet he was looking for and started fiddling with the number pad, and Jongdae was afraid that an alarm would go off at any moment. He looked to the door to make sure their escape route was open, and when he saw Chanyeol standing in the doorway as if he was guarding the place, he laughed. “Chanyeol, come inside.”

“I’m fine over here,” he said. “I’ve been in here plenty of times.”

“Aha!” Baekhyun called out when he got the cabinet open. He opened the door and was met with two large assault rifles hanging from a bar behind a sheet of glass. Baekhyun made a disappointed noise when he noticed the glass. “Awh, fuck, it needs a key!”

“Of course it does, they’re terrifying guns,” Jongdae said. He looked the rifles up and down and felt nervous just looking at them, and was thankful that they were behind glass. “Why do we even need guns like this?”

“When we’ve got a guy sitting on a rooftop trying to take out someone in a building across the street, this is what he uses,” Baekhyun nodded. Jongdae didn’t like the sound of that at all, but he wasn’t as used to death as Baekhyun was. He knew Baekhyun went around killing people for a living. Jongdae sighed. He was just the guy who filed the paperwork about it.

“These are cool,” Jongdae said with no enthusiasm. Baekhyun turned around and smirked at him, apparently catching his disinterest.

“You office rats never get it.”

“What am I supposed to feel when I look at a gun? Am I supposed to be excited? Am I supposed to get a boner? I don’t use guns, Baekhyunnie, so when I look at this I can only imagine it being used against me,” Jongdae grunted. Baekhyun rolled his eyes and eased a smile in his direction.

“You have a gun, dude.”

“I’ve never used it though.”

“Are you serious?”

“Seriously! I even left my gun at the bottom of my dresser in my room in China! I haven’t thought about it in weeks.”

“You should carry it around with you, you never know when you’re gonna be walking along the street then all of a sudden a bunch of guys in masks leap out of an unmarked van and pull you inside,” Baekhyun said dramatically.

Jongdae scoffed. “Has that happened to you, Baekhyun?”

“No, but I know a guy.”

“Shut up. Let’s get out of here,” Jongdae said, glancing over to Chanyeol by the door. As soon as he said this Chanyeol started to stir, his eyes widening a little bit, and Baekhyun made a soft sound as he went to leave. Baekhyun and Jongdae followed Chanyeol out and Baekhyun made sure the door locked behind them after he closed it.

“What do you want to do?” Baekhyun asked them, and Jongdae looked around. The hallway was kind of dark, only lit by the moonlight filtering in from the lone window at the end of it, and Jongdae figured they wouldn’t be able to turn the lights on.

“Show me your office, I guess.”

Chanyeol made a disappointed sound. “I don’t want to go in there, that’s where we spend all our time during the day.”

“Don’t show me your office, then,” Jongdae grinned.

“We could break into Kyungsoo’s,” Baekhyun offered. “But I’ve been in there plenty of times, there’s nothing fun in there. Not even little knick-knacks or pictures on the desk, just nothingness.”

“Also he’d kill us,” Jongdae added.

“That too. We could try to get into Suho’s office, I know he's got booze in there. I don’t have a key for it, though.”

Jongdae furrowed his brow at the thought. “That sounds like the best way for us to get in trouble.”

“Then what are we doing here?” Baekhyun sighed and plopped himself down on the floor, and Chanyeol hesitated before following him down. Jongdae sat down as well, completing their little circle on the floor, and Baekhyun smiled a little before pulling a flask out from the inside of his suit jacket. “We can just sit around and talk, I guess.”

“What’s in that?” Chanyeol asked, reaching out to get Baekhyun to hand it to him, and Baekhyun did so.

“Whiskey,” he said as Chanyeol took a short sip. Chanyeol made a face and then relaxed, handing the flask back to him, and as soon as Baekhyun had it in his hands he offered it to Jongdae. “Want some?”

“I’m fine,” Jongdae said, crossing his legs in front of him. He surveyed his friends sitting across from him and then looked towards Baekhyun, not sure if his next question would upset Chanyeol or not. “You said you had to dump a body last week?”

“Yeah, Suho’s been calling me over to his place way too often lately with bodies to throw out.” Baekhyun finished that off with a grunting sound as if that was a normal sentence. Jongdae was a little perturbed but Baekhyun continued. “Well this last one we just had to take down to the docks and there were guys there who took care of it for us. But like two months ago there was one we had to get rid of.”

“That’s so...gross,” Jongdae said, and then he looked to Chanyeol and frowned at what he saw. Chanyeol was looking straight ahead at the space in between Baekhyun and Jongdae, with a haunted look in his eyes that Jongdae had never seen before. Usually Chanyeol was so chipper and animated, but tonight felt as if he had been somewhere else the whole time. Jongdae didn’t like it. He waved a hand in front of Chanyeol’s face and got his attention. “I’m sorry you had to do that.”

“It’s just my job,” Chanyeol said after a short pause.

“Aren’t you just an office worker? You shouldn’t have to deal with dead people.”

“Chanyeol’s not an office worker anymore, he got promoted ever since he shot that guy,” Baekhyun spoke up, and Jongdae frowned deeply. He had forgotten a couple weeks ago Chanyeol had made his first kill, a guy from the Gunsan division that had been trying to take out Suho. Jongdae had not asked a lot of questions during that, since Chanyeol had cut himself off from the world for a while after it. Jongdae remember Chanyeol not responding to his texts for a few days and then suddenly reappearing talking about something his sister was up to as if nothing had happened at all. Jongdae had not bothered to do any digging, afraid that Chanyeol might be upset by it.

“I forgot that,” Jongdae said quietly as Chanyeol sat there. Baekhyun shrugged.

“I think he got a promotion or something.”

“No, I didn’t,” Chanyeol said, his throat sounding tight.

“Well, Suho’s been making you do a lot more since then. He knows you’re trustworthy now.”

“I don’t really want to be trustworthy,” Chanyeol mumbled. “I just wanted a desk job.”

“You can’t hope for that when you’re working here, Chanyeollie.”

“It’ll be fine,” Jongdae said uselessly, since he was well aware that he couldn’t make that promise. Jongdae suddenly felt lucky to have Kris for a boss, since Kris rarely ever asked anything of him at all.

“Mm.” Chanyeol made a soft sound and then sighed. “I have to go on a mission with Kyungsoo tomorrow.”

“Really?” Baekhyun furrowed his brow. “Without me?”

“Yeah.”

“But I’m Kyungsoo’s partner.”

“Suho hyung told me it was going to be me and Kyungsoo.”

“That’s weird.” Baekhyun cleared his throat. “It sounds like he’s training you. That’s how it starts.”

Chanyeol made an upset sound and Jongdae was not fond of it. He wanted to change the subject, feeling bad for starting them on this in the first place, when his phone went off. He checked it out of habit, afraid it might be work calling this late in the night, but it was just another text message from Suho. “ _You free yet?_ ”

“He’s thirsty as fuck!” Jongdae exclaimed as he threw his phone down to the floor.

Chanyeol burst out laughing and the side of Baekhyun’s mouth perked up in an amused grin. “Who’s that?” Baekhyun asked.

Jongdae sighed. “Just a...a guy I know,” he said, trying to play it off casually. He absolutely could not tell Baekhyun and Chanyeol about his relationship with Suho, since he knew how much they hated their boss. That wouldn’t go over well and might even make his friends mad at him. Jongdae was fine with keeping it a terrible secret for the rest of his life.

“You have gay friends here?” Baekhyun asked, taking a sip from his flask. “I thought you just fucked Yixing.”

Jongdae yelped at him. “I don’t even do that, though! Yixing hardly looks at me anymore!”

Baekhyun reached across the circle to put a comforting hand on Jongdae’s knee. “And I’m so sorry, Jongdae.”

Jongdae laughed and swatted Baekhyun off of him. “Shut up! I don’t like him like that anymore, you know that. I got over him.” That was entirely untrue, his heart still fluttered whenever Yixing paid him the least bit of attention, but Jongdae didn’t need to tell them that.

“That’s really cute,” Baekhyun said with a little smirk. He looked around the circle at Jongdae’s tiny smile and Chanyeol’s disconnected stare, and then motioned at Chanyeol with the hand his flask was in. “Chanyeol, tell me that story about the prostitute who helped you find your parents at the fair when you were six.”

Chanyeol groaned but managed a small smile. “Ah, you’ve both heard that one before.”

“But I love that story, and I know you like telling it. Come on.”

Chanyeol sighed heavily and started telling the story that Jongdae had heard at least twice before, and Jongdae was thankful for Baekhyun’s friendly insight. Baekhyun could be an annoying handful sometimes but he was always a good friend to them and Jongdae appreciated that. When Chanyeol was done telling his story Baekhyun egged him on to tell another, and Jongdae was more than content to let Chanyeol tell stories into the night. Eventually he looked at his phone and saw that it was almost one in the morning, and he made an audible sound. “Ahh, you guys have work in the morning, don’t you? We should probably get out.”

Baekhyun snorted but checked his own phone and agreed. Chanyeol didn’t seem to care where he was at all, so the three decided to leave their office and go back down onto the street, with Baekhyun calling another cab to take them home.

“I’ll get my own,” Jongdae told them as Baekhyun and Chanyeol got into the backseat of a cab. Chanyeol objected but Jongdae raised a hand to quiet him. “I live in the opposite direction of you guys anyway, it’s fine. I’ll see you later.”

“Alright, see you,” Baekhyun smiled, and Chanyeol reached over him to grab Jongdae’s hand in his own.

“If we don’t see you before you leave, have a safe trip back, okay?” He told him, and Jongdae grinned.

“I’ll probably see you tomorrow! But thank you, thank you, Chanyeol.”

“See ya,” Baekhyun repeated, and then he closed the cab door. Jongdae watched them drive off and then sighed a little to himself, moving to open his taxi cab app to take him home.

Or. He could always just...oh this was terrible, but why the fuck not, he was in a great mood. He opened his chat with Suho and typed out a quick text to him. “ _Come pick me up and take me home?_ ”

This was risky, especially since he was asking it of his boss, and when Suho replied in under two minutes Jongdae made a happy sound out loud at his phone. “ _Where are you?_ ”

Jongdae grinned and told Suho he was at the office, hoping he wouldn’t ask anything of it. He got a response telling him that Suho was on his way, and was very amused at how eager he seemed. Jongdae went over to the stoop of their office and sat down on it, hugging his suit jacket around himself. It wasn’t unbearably cold outside but it wasn’t too pleasant either, but hopefully Suho would be there to pick him up quickly.

Suho pulled up fifteen minutes later in a black Lamborghini and Jongdae’s eyes almost rolled out of his head. The windows were tinted but Jongdae knew it was Suho just from how shiny and expensive the car looked, and so he walked up to the passenger seat and opened the door. He dropped inside and gulped when he saw Suho sitting in the driver’s seat, looking sort of tired and a little expectant. “Hey, thanks for picking me up.”

“No problem.” Suho gave him a small smile. “What are you doing here?”

“This is just where Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and I ended up,” Jongdae told him, and Suho nodded.

“Cool.” He started to drive off, going faster than what Jongdae figured the speed limit was, and Jongdae gripped the side of his seat out of fear.

“I like your car,” he said with a laugh, and looked over to see Suho’s face crack in a grin.

“Thaaank you. I’ve been really into this one lately,” he said, and then he turned on the radio, turning the volume down a tiny bit so Jongdae could keep speaking to him.

Jongdae had no idea what to say, though, so he kept quiet. Suho didn’t seem to mind. Jongdae was pretty sure he was just trying to get laid after a fun night with friends and this required the least amount of effort, so he was doing it. He wasn’t hurting Sehun or anything. He wasn’t hurting anyone. This had become the norm for him, and he was okay with it. He was in the passenger seat of his boss’ luxury car right now, and in two days he’d be back in China with a lot of work to do. He was going to enjoy himself while he could.

 

 


	3. jongdae is startled at work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter includes a homphobic slur so here's a warning for that;;  
> thank you so much for reading ;w;

The next morning when Jongdae woke up in his boss’ bed he felt absolutely terrible, and it wasn’t just the vague nausea that came with the alcohol he had consumed last night. There had been a nagging suspicion that Suho was playing him, that he was definitely still dating Sehun and was just lying about it so he could fuck him, but Jongdae had been too excited to get laid last night to want to entertain it. But now as he was staring up at the ceiling, listening to the sound of Suho’s shower running in the bathroom, he felt as if he had made a huge mistake.

He sat up in the bed, looking straight ahead at the bedroom door, and felt as if he wanted to cry. This was bad. He absolutely could not continue doing this, not when it made him feel this way. Suho was a good fuck but he was not worth it at all. Jongdae groaned a little, feeling bad for himself, and when he heard the shower stop he looked towards the bathroom door.

There was no movement for a while so Jongdae got up to put his clothes back on, and when he was buttoning up his shirt Suho came out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel. Jongdae’s breath hitched in his throat a little bit but he willed himself to ignore it, and when Suho smiled easily at him he felt nothing. “Good morning,” he told him, and Jongdae pouted.

“Good morning.”

“What’s that face for?” Suho asked, going over to his closet, and Jongdae grunted at him.

“I’m mad at you,” he said.

Suho turned to frown at Jongdae and Jongdae found the expression a tiny bit adorable until he reminded himself that he hated this guy now. “Don’t be mad at me. What did I do?”

“I think you’re lying to me about Sehun,” Jongdae said. “And I don’t want a part in that.”

Suho laughed a little and Jongdae found himself starting to hate the sound. “I _promise_ I’m not lying to you about Sehun,” he said. “Or about anything. Sehun and I are done. He doesn’t like me anymore. He’s really fucking mad at me.” Suho lifted a hand to motion at Jongdae. “Seriously, text him right now and ask him. He’ll tell you the same thing. I’m not lying.”

Jongdae felt somewhat comforted by Suho’s confidence but he wasn’t going to let himself be won over. “Sure, sure.”

“I’m serious. He’s not even talking to me.” Suho scoffed a little. “He’s still using my goddamn credit card, I can see his purchases. But he’s not talking to me at all.”

“Alright,” Jongdae said, feeling tired of this conversation. He sat down on the bed once he had his clothes on, and made sure his back was to Suho as Suho got dressed. He started to mull over the things he had to do today, and wasn’t excited to do three loads of laundry once he got back to his apartment building. He had a big trip tomorrow and he had to be prepared for it, though. He was going to see his parents today, and that was a plus.

When Suho finished dressing he came up to Jongdae’s side and put his hand on Jongdae’s shoulder, and Jongdae felt sort of silly for startling so hard at it. “Wanna come to the office with me?” Suho asked, and Jongdae snorted a little.

Jongdae had already planned out his day but maybe saying goodbye to his Korean friends wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. He could pop in to see everyone and then leave and go on his merry way, since he didn’t have work to do today. “Ahh...” He started, and then blinked. “I can’t go, I’m in the same outfit as last night. Baekhyun and Chanyeol will wonder what’s up.”

“I can take you to your place if you want to change,” Suho said, his hands fiddling with the cufflinks on his dress shirt, and Jongdae watched his fingers move for a moment before sighing.

“Okay, sure, whatever. I’ll go with you.”

“Awesome, come along with me,” Suho motioned at him as he started to leave the room. Jongdae followed him closely and was a little confused when Suho went straight to his garage, and Jongdae glanced back to where he knew the kitchen was located.

“Are we not gonna have breakfast?” Jongdae asked, feeling thrown off. He was used to Minseok cooking for him and had grown to like having a meal after he woke up, but Suho just laughed airily at him.

“Ahh, I’m late already, Kyungsoo would raise a fuss if I took any longer than I am.”

Jongdae groaned out loud. “Suho hyung, you can’t just be late all the time.”

“What are they going to do? They can’t do anything to me, I’m their boss,” Suho said, sounding cocky and a little amused by Jongdae’s concern. Jongdae rolled his eyes and followed Suho into the garage, and then stood by the doorway as he was met with a room much larger than he had anticipated. It had to be big to fit the five cars that were in there, and Jongdae couldn’t help but stand frozen and gawk at them. They were all expensive-looking and in various shades of silver and black, except for a red convertible that Jongdae was able to identify as the Ferrari that Baekhyun sometimes raved about. Jongdae had never seen this car before, only listened to Baekhyun wax poetic about it sometimes when he got drunk, and he was mesmerized.

“Holy shit, that car,” Jongdae said, and Suho turned around to look at him.

“Mm? Which one?”

“The red one. Is that a Ferrari?”

“You’re right! Are you into cars?” Suho asked, his eyes suddenly lighting up like an excited child’s, and Jongdae took a moment to appreciate the expression before shaking his head.

“Not really, I’ve just heard Baekhyun mention you had a red Ferrari before.”

“Oh, oh, yeah,” Suho said, sounding a little disappointed. He glanced down at the black car he had walked up to, and then pointed at the Ferrari. “Do you want to take that one?”

“Uhm.” Jongdae had never ridden in a convertible before, and the idea sounded enticing. He exhaled slowly, reminding himself that today was probably the last day he was going to spend with Suho and that he should take advantage of whatever he could. “Sure, if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” Suho said, motioning for Jongdae to follow him over to the car. Jongdae got into the passenger seat and was met with a rush of adrenaline just because he didn’t have a roof over his head. “Your hair might get kind of messy,” Suho warned him as he opened the garage door with a button.

Jongdae smiled a little bit at that. He wasn’t too worried about his hair getting messed up. “That’s fine,” he said, and when they drove off he felt a little too intimidated to speak again.

“You’ll have to tell me where you live,” Suho told him, and Jongdae nodded, giving him the address. Suho took out his phone and plugged Jongdae’s address into the GPS, then handed Jongdae his phone for him to hold. Jongdae stared down at it as if he was holding a time bomb, and thought for a second that maybe he was. A mob boss phone. He had no idea what could possibly be on this, and he didn’t like holding it, even if it was just to give directions.

“I think I like this car the most,” Jongdae said, trying to distract himself from the phone. “But I didn’t really get a good look at the others. I like this one more than the one we were in last night.”

Suho laughed at that. “This one’s a fan favorite, yeah. Baekhyun likes this one, doesn’t he? My ex liked this one the most, too. It’s red so people gravitate towards it, I think. Sehun likes the Zenvo but of course he does, it was the most expensive.”

Jongdae didn’t even know what a Zenvo was or looked like and he was hesitant to ask how much it cost. He hadn’t realized that just by saying something about the car he had invited Suho to chatter away about his cars for the rest of the ride, but he didn’t think that was a bad thing. Jongdae never knew what to say to his boss so he was thankful when Suho supplied most of the conversation, and he was beginning to think the way Suho was so enamored with his cars was kind of cute. Suho could be really charming when he wasn’t being a complete asshole, Jongdae thought.

When Suho pulled up in the parking lot outside of Jongdae’s building Jongdae leaped to take his seat belt off. “Alright, I’ll be really fast, I promise,” he told him, and Suho glanced at him.

“Can I come up with you?” He asked, and Jongdae blinked at him for a moment.

No. No no no. Jongdae had no idea what might happen if he let him come up. “No, I won’t be long, I swear.”

Suho groaned a little but let Jongdae go, and Jongdae hauled himself up to his apartment to change his outfit and make sure he didn’t look like he had spent the night elsewhere. His hair looked about as good as he could get it after he fussed with it a while, and he realized that Suho had been very serious about the wind messing it up. There wasn’t anything he could do about that, though, so he just re-dressed himself and gathered everything he might need for the day. When he was done he hopped downstairs to get back into Suho’s car, smiling at him when he arrived. “See, I was fast, wasn’t I?”

“Yes, you’re very efficient,” Suho told him with a laugh. He started to speed off as soon as Jongdae got into the car, and Jongdae held onto the seat again, startled by the sudden movement.

He was thankful that the drive to their office wasn’t far, and laughed when Suho made a big deal out of finding a good parking space in the parking garage. “My car got keyed once,” Suho explained to him, “probably by some asshole teenagers.” Jongdae was well aware that Baekhyun had keyed Suho’s Jaguar a couple months back but he was not going to supply him with that information. “I have to be careful where I park it.”

Suho led Jongdae up to the offices, and Jongdae was comforted by the ceiling lights that hadn’t been on when he had visited last night. The office was a lot cheerier during the day, he thought, even when it was full of mobsters. When they entered the hallway Jongdae saw Jongin standing outside of his office, fussing around on his phone, and he looked up when he sensed movement and began to bow when he saw them. “Suho hyung,” he greeted, his head down, and when he came back up he grinned widely at Jongdae. “Jongdae hyung! You’re still here!”

“Yeah, today’s my last day,” Jongdae said with a smile as he took Jongin’s hand to shake it. “I’m going back to Beijing tomorrow.”

“That sucks,” Jongin said, and then his eyes widened as he caught himself. “Or it’s awesome, if you’re excited to go back.”

Jongdae laughed a little. “It’s sort of both, I guess!”

“Kyungsoo-yah,” Jongdae heard Suho calling at Kyungsoo’s office door, and turned to watch him knocking over and over again on it. Jongdae laughed a little and Jongin managed a smile at him.

“He’s mad at you, Suho hyung,” Jongin told him, and Suho rolled his eyes and smiled easily in their direction.

“And why’s that?” he asked.

“Because you’re late today,” Jongin replied, his smile still not fading. Suho grunted and started to knock on Kyungsoo’s door again, not giving up. He called out Kyungsoo’s name louder and in a higher pitch, apparently trying to be as annoying as possible, and Jongdae laughed at it.

Jongdae’s mirth disappeared once Baekhyun burst through his own office door with a hardened scowl plastered on his face. “Suho, shut the fuck up! It’s too early for your screaming!”

“Good morning, Baekhyun,” Suho said in a monotone voice, not bothering to turn away from the door to look at him. He kept knocking on Kyungsoo’s door and Baekhyun frowned at him.

“He’s not gonna answer you. Hey, look at me,” Baekhyun said, and Suho turned around lazily to look at Baekhyun with an unamused expression. The two stared at each other for a moment that Jongdae didn’t like. He was in a good mood this morning and he didn’t want it ruined by watching these two fight, and apparently Jongin felt the same way, because he slinked back into his office after a moment of watching them stare at each other.

“What?” Suho asked Baekhyun finally, and Baekhyun snarled at him.

“You’re sending Kyungsoo and Chanyeol out on a mission today, right? Why not me?”

“Because I’m trying to get Chanyeol acquainted with field missions,” Suho said slowly, and Baekhyun shook his head.

“Not that, not that. Why not me and Chanyeol? I get along better with Chanyeol than Kyungsoo does, I think it makes sense that I should go with him.”

“Kyungsoo’s a professional,” Suho said, his face showing nothing. Baekhyun scoffed at him.

“And I’m not? I do my job better than anybody else here. Don’t give me that look,” Baekhyun raised his voice when the side of Suho’s mouth perked up in a little smile. “Don’t fucking look at me like that. I’m just as good as Kyungsoo is.”

“I trust Kyungsoo to take care of someone new more than I trust you,” Suho said.

Baekhyun didn’t seem to like this answer, and he waved his hand at Suho angrily. “You need to stop sucking Kyungsoo’s dick all the time, give him a goddamn break, Suho! Hyung!” He caught himself after a brief moment. “He works too damn hard! I’ll go on the mission with Chanyeol, alright?”

“No, I’ve already decided Chanyeol’s going with Kyungsoo.” Suho frowned slightly. “Baekhyun, it really isn’t that big of a deal.”

“I’m pissed that you didn’t even consider me for this, I heard _nothing_ about this mission. I had to fucking learn about it from Chanyeol last night. Why the hell don’t you tell me anything?”

“Because you fucking bitch and moan about everything, Baekhyun!” Suho raised his voice, finally looking exasperated with this conversation. “Every decision I make you take as a personal attack and then you get like this! I figure you’re gonna be pissed at me no matter what I do so I’ve stopped caring about your precious little feelings!”  
  
“Don’t condescend me!” Baekhyun pointed at Suho, his brow furrowing, and Jongdae was uncomfortable by how loud his voice had gotten. Kyungsoo’s doorknob started to turn and the door opened, but Baekhyun and Suho seemed to distracted by their fight to notice it. Kyungsoo stood in the doorway observing the scene for a moment, but said nothing.

“I’ll condescend you as much as I damn well please, I own you,” Suho said with a scowl, and Baekhyun flipped him off. Jongdae thought he saw a vein appear in Suho’s forehead at the gesture. “Watch yourself, you piece of shit, I can have you replaced in a second.”

“I’d like to see you try! I bet you’d have to run around on missions yourself and like hell you can do even a third of what I do! If you got rid of me then you’d have to work harder and you’d probably end up breaking a nail, you fucking faggot!”

“ _Baekhyun_ ,” Kyungsoo and Jongdae called at the same time, and then glanced at each other when they heard each other. Baekhyun glanced at Jongdae, apparently registering that he was there for the first time all day, but then looked back at Suho when Suho raised a hand to motion at him.

“You have a fucking deathwish, Baekhyun,” he spat.

“Try to kill me, _faggot_ ,” Baekhyun dared again, and before Jongdae could yell at him for his language Suho had pulled his gun out of the holster on his waistband and had pushed Baekhyun up against the wall, pressing the barrel up against Baekhyun’s forehead. Jongdae felt his heart in his throat and wanted to take a step forward to stop him, but was frozen in fear. He noticed Baekhyun’s eyes widen as far as they would go and cursed his friend’s belligerent nature.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Suho shouted, pushing his gun against Baekhyun’s skin with a force that looked painful, and Jongdae was eternally grateful for Kyungsoo stepping up and yanking Suho’s hand off of Baekhyun. Baekhyun kept staring with wide eyes as Kyungsoo pushed Suho away from him and scowled.

“Suho hyung! Go into your office and calm down, fuck! Make a drink or something, fuck,” Kyungsoo said, sounding tired, and Suho waved his hands at him.

“Are you seriously mad at me?!”

“I’m frustrated! Just go away for a moment and calm down!” Kyungsoo stared at Suho, his expression fierce and not giving anything away, and Suho cursed under his breath before taking Kyungsoo’s advice and turning the hallway to go to his office.

“Thank you,” Baekhyun said quickly once Suho was gone, and then Kyungsoo turned his glare on Baekhyun, pushing him against the wall with both hands.

“What’s your problem? Don’t antagonize him, you know he’ll shoot you!”

“I don’t think he’ll shoot me,” Baekhyun said, closing his eyes.

“He almost just did, Baekhyun! This bravado’s got to stop, you’re not as fucking intimidating as you think you are!”

“Baekhyun,” Jongdae said quietly, trying to get his attention, and Baekhyun glanced over at him, his eyes looking a little wild and somewhat scared.

“Jongdae, why are you even here?” Baekhyun asked, and it seemed as soon as Baekhyun said his name Chanyeol appeared in the doorway of Baekhyun’s office. Jongdae had assumed Chanyeol had been hiding in there, since he was used to Chanyeol doing most of his work in Baekhyun’s office. He wondered how much of the fight Chanyeol had seen.

“Jongdae,” Chanyeol said sadly when he saw him standing there, and then immediately his brow furrowed. He turned on Baekhyun and grabbed the front of his shirt in his fist. “You need to watch your mouth, Baekhyun.”

“What the fuck?! What the fuck are you going after me for?” Baekhyun yelled, lifting a hand to grab Chanyeol’s and throw it off of him.

“Your best friend’s fucking bisexual, Baekhyun!” Chanyeol said, motioning at Jongdae. “And Kyungsoo likes guys too! You can’t keep using that word and then think everything’s gonna be fine! You’re being really hurtful!”

Baekhyun frowned at Chanyeol like he had just watched a puppy die in front of him. “I can’t believe you’re serious right now. You use that word all the time too.”

“Not anymore! Not since Jongdae came out, Baekhyun! Because I’m a good friend!” He pushed Baekhyun’s chest roughly and then turned to frown at Jongdae again. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Jongdae said quickly, flustered that the conversation had suddenly become about him. He was a little bit surprised that Chanyeol was reacting in such a way, since he had his own history of being casually homophobic, but apparently he had grown up. Jongdae was grateful for it. “Really. I’m just glad nobody got hurt.”

“You should’ve gotten hurt, maybe then you’d learn something,” Chanyeol mumbled at Baekhyun before going back into the office and slamming the door shut.

Baekhyun whined and pounded on the door. “Chanyeol, this is my office too! You can’t keep me out!” There was no response and Baekhyun stomped his foot on the ground like a petulant child. “Chanyeol! Let me in!”

“Apologize,” Chanyeol’s voice came muffled out from the door, and Baekhyun made a short sound of disbelief before turning to Jongdae.

“I’m sorry, I used a slur and I shouldn’t have,” Baekhyun said, his lips drawn tight. Then he turned to Kyungsoo. “You too. I shouldn’t use that word.”

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo said stiffly, and then sighed. “Just don’t say that anymore and it’s fine, okay?”

“Yeah, Baekhyun, just learn from this,” Jongdae said with a deep frown on his face. Baekhyun nodded and then knocked on his office door once more.

“I apologized, let me in,” Baekhyun said, and the door opened a crack. Jongdae managed a laugh at it and Baekhyun pushed the door back to open it further, and then looked at Jongdae. “Are you working today?”

“No, I just came by to say bye to people, but I think I should just be going now,” Jongdae said, feeling antsy after watching what had just happened. Coming to the office was probably a bad idea to begin with, he shouldn’t have bothered. Baekhyun nodded curtly at him.

“Yeah, this office is no fun at all. Have a safe trip tomorrow.”

“Is Jongdae leaving?” came Chanyeol’s voice from the office, and he stepped to join Baekhyun in the doorway and look at Jongdae with big eyes. “Bye, Jongdae, we’ll see you soon.”

Jongdae smiled at them, feeling better. “Yeah, I’ll be back in no time.”

Chanyeol and Baekhyun went back into their office and Kyungsoo stood in place for a moment before sighing heavily and turning to Jongdae. “Sorry about all that. It kind of happens all the time.”

“I’m glad I don’t work here,” Jongdae said with a weak laugh, and Kyungsoo returned it with a tired smile.

“You should be,” he said, and then held his hand out for Jongdae to shake. Jongdae shook it and Kyungsoo smiled once more at him. “Safe travels.”

“Thank you,” Jongdae nodded and Kyungsoo moved to go back into his office, hesitated, and then went to turn the corner to go to Suho’s. Jongdae laughed a little at the gesture and then was left alone in the hallway, his heart still racing. That was wild. The Korean division was wild. Nothing exciting ever went down in China.

He felt a tiny bit bad for not saying goodbye to Suho but he figured he would get over it quickly, and he left the building and opened his taxi app to find a car that would take him to his parents' house. He shot his mother a quick text telling her that he was going to come visit now, and when the taxi arrived ten minutes later he got inside and told the driver the address.

He had mostly calmed down when his phone went off to notify him he had a text from Yixing. What the hell? Jongdae laughed at just the idea and opened it.

“ _Can you come pick me up?_ ” The text from Yixing read, and Jongdae scoffed at it. It was in Chinese and had taken Jongdae a tiny bit longer than he would like to admit to understand it. What the hell was Yixing doing texting him, Jongdae hadn’t been in Beijing all week. Was Yixing really that absentminded that he didn’t notice he was gone?

Jongdae started to draft a response when he got another text from Yixing. “ _Sorry wrong number_ ”, it read, and Jongdae laughed out loud. That made sense. He was still a little bit worried though, afraid that maybe Yixing was in trouble and needed assistance.

“ _Is everything alright?_ ” he texted Yixing, just to be careful, and was glad that Yixing responded almost immediately.

“ _Yeah I’m fine. When are you coming back?_ ” He asked, and Jongdae blinked at his phone. Yixing was still talking to him? This was new. This was probably the longest text conversation they had ever had.

“ _I’ll be back tomorrow,_ ” Jongdae told him, and it took Yixing a minute to reply to it.

“ _Cool. See you soon I hope._ ”

That was...kind of strange. Jongdae had gotten over the initial glee of Yixing’s apparent excitement to see him once he registered the last part of that message. I hope? What was Yixing doing that could possibly hinder him being at work tomorrow? God Jongdae hated this job, he always felt like he was being left in the dark and he was terrified because of it. There was nothing he could do from the back of a cab in Korea, though. He would just have to wait and see Yixing tomorrow.

 

 


	4. jongdae has to do something and takes a few phone calls

Two days later Jongdae was sitting back in his office in Beijing, whining inside of his head about how he didn’t think his vacation had been long enough. He had only been in Seoul for a week and hadn’t gotten to hang out with his friends as much as he would’ve liked, and now he was back in a city where he barely knew anyone but his coworkers. He was mourning the loss of his social life when Yixing burst in through the door, staring hard at Jongdae for a moment and then glancing up to look at Minseok on the far side of the room.

“Hey, you, I want to talk to you,” Yixing said, glancing in between Jongdae and Minseok, and the two looked at each other, confused, before looking back at Yixing.

“Which one of us?” Jongdae asked Yixing in hesitant Chinese.

“You,” Yixing said, making an incredulous face as if Jongdae had asked a stupid question. Jongdae sighed quietly at how willfully confusing Yixing could be and then stood up, pushing his chair back in as he walked by it towards the door.

“Alright,” he told him, and as soon as he stepped out into the hallway he looked up to see Kris heading towards their direction. When Jongdae appeared Kris seemed to speed up his steps, easing a smile at him.

“Hey, Jongdae, I wanted to show you something,” he said, sounding more animated than Jongdae was used to hearing him, and Jongdae watched him curiously, wondering what in the world his boss would want to show him. Kris stopped when he got to them and looked down to poke at his phone, and Yixing stomped his foot on the ground.

“I’m talking to him, make it quick,” Yixing told Kris, and then Kris turned his phone around to show Jongdae what was on the screen. Jongdae saw what looked like a photograph of Yixing looking unamused at the camera for a split second before Yixing raised his hand to knock Kris’ phone away. “What the fuck are you doing, don’t show him that!”

“What was that?” Jongdae asked with a laugh, and he stood there awkwardly watching his boss laugh harder than he had ever seen him while Yixing fumed at him. Kris stomped his feet on the ground and pushed Yixing back with his free hand, grinning at him but not saying anything.

Yixing kept his brow furrowed and glared back at him. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“I want to show Jongdae this picture.”

“Don’t fucking show him anything!”

“Yixing, it’s just a dumb picture! God, you never let me have any fun!”

“I’ve watched you run around the office showing everyone, I’m fucking tired of it!” Yixing raised his voice and Kris rolled his eyes, turning his phone around to show Jongdae again. Jongdae looked at the picture for another second before Yixing knocked Kris’ arm down with a rough fist. “I told you, no!”

“Go fuck yourself,” Kris told Yixing, looking at him frustratedly, and the two glared daggers at each other until Yixing sighed loudly and looked away.

“Fine, be an asshole! But only because I can’t think of how I’d stop you if you brought him into your office to show him.”

“Hah,” Kris laughed and showed Jongdae his phone, smirking as if he had won something. Jongdae studied the picture, which just looked like Yixing being disinterested at the camera in front of a gray wall until he saw the paper he was holding in front of himself. It had on it his name and a few numbers, and Jongdae blinked.

“What’s this?”

“I got arrested a couple of days ago, that’s the fucking picture they took of me,” Yixing groaned, looking away from either of them, and as Kris chuckled to himself Jongdae’s mouth fell open and he turned to Yixing.

“You got _arrested_?”

“Yeah.”

“For _what_?” Jongdae could think of any number of things a mobster could possibly get arrested for, a lot of them worse than others. But Yixing was here at work today so it couldn’t have been that bad.

“He-- can I tell this story? I love this story,” Kris spoke up, eyeing Yixing playfully, and when Yixing just rolled his eyes at him Kris took it as permission to keep going, his grin widening. Jongdae was entertained at how gleeful he looked. “Yixing went to the convenience store three blocks away to get _a coffee and a pack of cigarettes_. And I asked you for coconut water, didn’t I?” Kris looked expectantly at Yixing and Yixing stared back at him in disbelief for a moment before nodding. Kris smirked. “Didn’t bring me that, either.”

“Would you shut the fuck up?” Yixing growled.

“Yixing didn’t end up getting the shit he wanted to, though, because he adjusted his suit jacket when he was standing at the register and the cashier fucking saw the gun tucked into his pants.” Kris motioned at Yixing. “Would you do that for me? Would you show me how you flashed your gun at that old woman?”

“Stop it!” Yixing scowled, raising a hand to swat Kris, and Kris laughed loudly at him. Jongdae laughed a little awkwardly, looking in between the two of them and not knowing what the appropriate reaction would be. He wanted to laugh because it actually was really funny, but was afraid that if he did, Yixing would hit him. Jongdae eyed Yixing for a moment and when Yixing glanced at him, he looked back to Kris.

“So naturally the woman called the cops, because what the fuck is this gangster-looking dude doing in her store with a gun, am I right? He’s gonna rob the place, obviously! And the cops showed up and Yixing got arrested for carrying a weapon. Oh, and you got booked for something else, too?” Kris watched Yixing, waiting for him to respond.

Yixing lifted a hand to his face and rubbed at his temple, looking as if he was holding every bone in his body back from strangling his boss. “Yeah, I did.”

“Yes, don’t forget the fuckin' joint you had in your pocket,” Kris concluded matter-of-factly, and Yixing sighed heavily.

“Yeah, I had weed on me,” Yixing grumbled, and Kris exhaled, the sound happy and relaxed.

“You know, I really thought I would get tired of it, but it’s been two days and it only gets funnier every time I think about it. Thank you, Yixing, for being such a fucking idiot.”

“Are you done?” Yixing scowled at Kris, and Kris smiled tightly back at him.

“Yes, I am done.” He turned the smile to Jongdae. “So that’s why Yixing’s mugshot is going to be included in the first issue of the office newsletter, which I am starting up just to print the mugshot it.”

“Go fuck yourself!” Yixing lunged at Kris again and Kris flailed to knock Yixing off of him. Jongdae laughed as he watched them and then tried to soften his face when Kris turned his attention back to him.

“Is everything alright, though? I see Yixing’s here at work,” Jongdae said, and Kris nodded.

“I bailed him out and I’m gonna get everything dropped. It’s not a big deal. But holy fuck did it make my day.”

“Are you gonna do some work for once in your life?” Yixing grunted at him, looking like he was completely done with this and ready to move on to something else, and Kris turned on his heel to go back to his office.

“Yeah, I’m done making fun of you,” he said.

“Hey, wait,” Jongdae called out to him in Korean, and Kris turned around to look at him. “Can you send me that picture?” he asked in his mother tongue so Yixing wouldn’t understand.

Kris grinned and gave him a thumbs up. “Absolutely!” He responded in Korean before going back to his office.

“What the hell did you just say to him?” Yixing asked Jongdae, and Jongdae stared at him with wide eyes.

“I-- I asked him if you were going to kill me for laughing. And he said yes.”

Yixing sighed, rolling his eyes. “I’m not going to kill you, it is kind of funny. I don’t fucking care, laugh all you want. He’ll get his.”

“Okay.” Jongdae stared at him for a moment and then laughed. “Hah!” He laughed again. “You got arrested!”

“You’ll get yours too,” Yixing said slowly, and Jongdae just grinned at him.

“Sure. What did you want from me?”

“Oh, right. Shit, just come with me,” he said, motioning for Jongdae to follow him towards his office, and Jongdae felt nervous all of a sudden. Yixing never wanted to see him in his office, shit, was he in trouble? Had he done something in the two fucking days he had been back in China? He jumped a little when Yixing closed the office door behind him, and when Yixing motioned for him to sit down he flopped down gracelessly.

Yixing kept standing as he spoke and Jongdae nearly stood back up just to be polite. “You have to come with me to deliver a briefcase to Taiyuan tomorrow.”

Immediately a million questions rose in Jongdae’s head, and he looked around anxiously trying to decide which one to ask first. “Me? Why me? Isn’t Lu Han your partner?”

“Kris said you have to come on deliveries now,” Yixing said plainly, and Jongdae frowned.

“But why _me_? I don’t speak Chinese well enough to talk to mobsters.”

“I do. You hold the briefcase.”

“Oh, I don’t know if I like this,” Jongdae groaned, thinking back to how Chanyeol had gone on his first mission the other day and had hated every minute of it. “I don’t know if I want to do this.”

“What? Are you denying something we’re making you do?” Yixing asked him, his hands on his hips, and Jongdae stared at him for a moment.

“I...I guess I can’t do that.”

“You’re right, you can’t do that. But you don’t have to be scared, we’re barely doing anything. We’re exchanging briefcases with a dude in an office and then we’re coming home. The worst part will be the drive.”

“How far is it? Taiyuan’s not too far, is it?”

“It’ll be like five hours there,” Yixing said, and Jongdae groaned out loud.

“Are you serious? Round trip or both ways?”

“Both ways.”

“Fuck,” Jongdae grunted, and Yixing smirked a little bit at him.

“Yeah, I don’t really want to waste my day doing it either, but it has to be done.”

“Why do you need me, if I’m not going to do anything important?”

“We can’t go anywhere by ourselves, you fucking know that. That’s dangerous. You’re there to protect me from getting shot,” Yixing said, lifting a hand to shake at Jongdae, “so don’t fuck around. Don’t say you’re not there for anything important.”

“Ah...” Jongdae hadn’t thought about any of that, since he had never been put in a situation where he would’ve had to. “You’re right. Sorry.”

“So bring your gun with you tomorrow. Do you even have it with you today?”

“I...” Jongdae shook his head, since he had left his gun at the bottom of a drawer in his bedroom. He hadn’t moved it in weeks.

“But you have it here somewhere, right? I won’t need to get you a new one for tomorrow?”

“No, I have a gun.”

“And it’s loaded?”

Jongdae squirmed a little in his seat just from being asked so many questions about it. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is.” He had no idea how he was going to hypothetically use his gun tomorrow if he felt antsy just thinking about it. “Are we going to be doing anything that I’ll really need my gun for?”

“I honestly don’t think so. I won’t fuck around and I’ll get us out of there quickly. If anything goes down it won’t be our fault.”

Jongdae frowned. “That doesn’t comfort me at all, really.”

Yixing stared at him for a moment and then sighed. “What’s wrong with all you guys from the Korean unit? You’re so damn afraid of everything. What are they training you with there?”

Jongdae sighed. “I didn’t think I would ever go on a field mission, is all.”

“Don’t be scared. I’ll protect you,” Yixing said, and when Jongdae looked up at him he swore he caught Yixing rolling his eyes.

“Alright, fine. I’ll protect you, too,” Jongdae said, and Yixing smirked, going over to his desk to sit down at it.

“That’s all I wanted to tell you. Just come to work on time tomorrow. If you have any other questions just come in here or text me or something.”

“Okay.” Jongdae stood up and then blinked at Yixing. “What’s in the suitcase we’re delivering?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Jongdae shivered at that response. “No.”

Yixing laughed shortly at him. “It’s just drugs, don’t be scared. God.”

“Oh...” Jongdae laughed at himself, just because he was anxious, and then bowed to Yixing. “Alright, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Don’t forget your gun tomorrow.”

“I won’t,” Jongdae said, before giving Yixing a little smile and leaving his office. When the door was shut he blinked straight ahead at the wall and held back a scream. _Holy fuck what was going on._ He was scared enough thinking about Chanyeol going on field missions, he didn’t need to be going on them himself. Yixing had made it sound like not that big of a deal but he was terrified anyway. _Chanyeol killed somebody._ Jongdae groaned and closed his eyes, willing the thoughts to go away. Fuck. He was probably going to be fine.

* * *

 

Later that night Jongdae had still not been able to relax, even though Minseok had cooked him dinner and he was now curled up on the couch in front of the television watching an upbeat Chinese show that he didn’t really understand. He hadn’t told his roommate about his mission tomorrow, since he didn’t want to make Minseok worry about him, and felt trapped inside of his brain since he didn’t have anyone to talk his anxieties out with.

He told himself again that he was overreacting, that everything would go smoothly tomorrow because Yixing was a professional and knew what he was doing, and it was a simple mission anyway, nothing would go wrong. But his mind kept returning to Chanyeol’s mission history and it wasn’t letting him go. He was looking forward to the day after tomorrow just so he could have some peace of mind.

When Minseok finished washing the dishes he exited the kitchenette to smile at Jongdae from the hallway. “I’m feeling tired so I’m going to turn in now, I probably won’t go to bed yet but I’ll be in my room.”

“Alright, hyung, thank you for dinner,” Jongdae told him, and Minseok smiled.

“Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow, sleep well.”

“Thank you, you too,” Jongdae said, and he watched Minseok go into his bedroom. When he was alone he let out a sigh he hadn’t known he had been holding in. Holy shit this job wasn’t something he should’ve gotten himself involved in. He had been so strapped for cash a couple years ago that he had just blindly accepted the job offer Baekhyun threw his way, and now he had to unearth the gun in his drawer just in case he needed it tomorrow. Fuck.

He tried to immerse himself in the variety show he was watching but found that everyone was speaking too quickly for him to understand a lot of it. He sighed. All of his coworkers knew to speak slowly to him, so he thought he had been getting the hang of the language, but apparently not. Was his lack of language skills going to hurt them tomorrow? He groaned and leaned his head back on the couch. He needed to stop beating himself up so much.

His ringtone went off after a moment of feeling sorry for himself, and he sat back up to look at it. The screen said Suho was calling him and he stared at it. What...the fuck. What business did his _boss_ have with him right now? He didn’t like this, but he answered the call anyway, because he didn’t know what kind of trouble he could get in if he didn’t.

“Suho hyung?” He asked after swiping his phone.

“Jongdae! Hi there,” Suho’s voice rang out, sounding chipper even though there was an undercurrent of tiredness there. Jongdae blinked straight ahead at the television.

“H...hi? What’s up?”

“How was the trip back the other day? I forgot to call you when you got to Beijing, you should’ve texted me.”

Jongdae thought that Suho sounded just a tiny bit drunk but he wasn’t bothered enough to comment on it. “I...sorry, I thought Minseok hyung would’ve,” he lied. He probably should’ve called Suho just to inform him that they had arrived safely but the thought slipped his mind. “Sorry.”  
  
“No, it’s fine. I figure everything went okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s back to normal at work now,” Jongdae said.

“Good,” Suho said, and there was an awkward pause where neither of them said anything.

“Uhm...” Jongdae started, but Suho cut him off.

“What are you doing? Oh, sorry,” Suho said when he heard Jongdae’s voice, and Jongdae laughed a little.

“No, I wasn’t saying anything. Uhh, I’m just watching tv right now.”

“In Chinese?”

“Yeah.”

“How’re you liking it?”

“I can’t really understand a lot of it but the colors are bright,” Jongdae said, and then made a face at himself because he thought that sounded like something a particularly well-spoken toddler might say. “It’s fine.”

“That’s good,” Suho told him, and Jongdae blinked at the television once more. What the hell was he doing on the phone with Suho? Suho wasn’t really saying anything to him, and just being on the phone with his boss made him nervous.

“Suho hyung.”

“Yes?”

“Why did you call me? Is there something you need to tell me?”  
  
“I...I just wanted to talk,” Suho said after a pause, and Jongdae concluded that he did, in fact, sound pretty drunk. He was eloquent enough for a drunk person, and Jongdae wondered how long he had trained for that ability.

“Alright, uhm. I don’t really know what to say to you.” Jongdae groaned. “You know when I think of you, I think about how you’re my boss, so like,”

“Yeah, I know,” Suho said, and then paused again. “Uhh. Sehun and I are dating now,” he said, as if he was trying out any old thing as a conversation starter, and Jongdae was glad they were on the phone because he didn’t think the expression he made would’ve been received very well.

“Really?” He asked, trying not to sound smarmy.

“Yeah. Uhm. We talked about it and we’re fine now.”

“Okay. Good...good for you. I’m happy for you.”

“Uh-huh.”

Jongdae thought that the call was now even more awkward than it had been before, and he almost wanted to start thinking about his mission tomorrow to distract himself. “I guess Sehun’s not mad at you anymore.”

“No, he calmed down.”

“O...okay. I guess that means we won’t be seeing a lot of each other anymore, then.”

“That’s true.”

Jongdae had absolutely no idea what to say next, so when another call screen lit up his phone he almost sighed out loud in total relief. It was the picture of Chanyeol he had taken when they had gone to a karaoke bar on his last birthday, and Jongdae smiled at the thought. “Hyung, I’m getting another call, can I call you right back?”

“Ahh, really? Who is it?”

“It’s Chanyeol.”

“Is Chanyeol more important than me?” Suho asked, his voice sounding playful, and Jongdae wasn’t really in the mood.

“Yes, he is, he’s my best friend.”

“Ahh, Jongdae-yah...”

“I’m sorry, I’ll call you right back, okay?”

“Okay, take your time,” Suho told him, and Jongdae shut the call off quickly. He thought that he had been getting better at handling his boss, and was a little proud of himself. He swiped Chanyeol’s call to answer it, and when he was met with a sniffling sound he frowned, immediately taken out of the good mood that had appeared when he saw Chanyeol’s picture.

“Chanyeol? You there?”

“Jongdae,” Chanyeol’s voice said, and Jongdae thought he sounded thin and weak. He didn’t like this.

“Chanyeol? Are you okay? You’re not in danger, are you--” Jongdae said, moving to get up from the couch as if he could be any immediate help from a country away.

“Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine,” Chanyeol assured him, and Jongdae sighed, sitting back down on the couch.

“God, you scared me.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Chanyeol said, sounding so pitiful that Jongdae wanted to wrap him up in a blanket. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Jongdae forced a laugh to make himself feel more comfortable. “What’s up? Is everything alright?”

“I’m...everything’s not alright,” Chanyeol said slowly, and Jongdae felt his brow furrow. Ahh shit.

“What’s wrong, then?”

“I saw Kyungsoo kill someone,” Chanyeol said shortly, and it took Jongdae a moment to take this in. Well. He honestly didn’t have a response for that. He thought back to how Chanyeol had taken a life before, and wondered if this situation was better or worse. It didn’t sound like Chanyeol was too excited about it regardless.

“I...wow, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s fine. I don’t really know why I’m calling you.”

“Well, there’s gotta be a reason, right? I don’t mind that you called me,” Jongdae said.

“Thank you, Jongdae,” Chanyeol sniffled again, and Jongdae found the sound pitiful. He hated having to listen to it over the phone when he would rather be next to him comforting him. “I think seeing your name on my contact list helped.”

Jongdae smiled a little. “I’m glad I could be there for you, then.”

“I don’t know about this job anymore. I feel like I can’t take it. It got so different so fast and I don’t think I can do this,” Chanyeol explained, and Jongdae bit his lip listening to him. “I can’t go on missions, I can’t even watch Kyungsoo do things. I don’t want to ever have to do things myself, either. I-- I saw so much more blood today than I ever needed to see, Jongdae. I saw someone die, and, and Kyungsoo told me that he needed to die, but I don’t know that! How am I supposed to just stand there and watch someone die?!”

“Chanyeol...”

“I don’t know him and he was probably bad news if Kyungsoo needed to kill him but still, shit! I don’t need to be there for it!”

“I-I understand.”

“And if I talk to Suho hyung I know he won’t understand! I don’t know what to do,” Chanyeol sounded lost and Jongdae didn’t know how to begin to help him. He felt useless and terrible and was beginning to hate being so far away from his friends.

“Maybe...maybe if you talk to Suho hyung, if you explain to him that you weren’t expecting this much responsibility when you first joined, he’ll understand. I don’t know. I feel like he’s nicer than he leads on.” Jongdae said.

“I don’t think so. Suho hyung can be kind of an asshole,” Chanyeol said, and Jongdae hesitated.

“I-I know that. But Kyungsoo likes him, doesn’t he?” Jongdae tried. Chanyeol didn’t know about Jongdae’s relationship with Suho and Jongdae didn’t want to tell him, but maybe he could talk to Suho without Chanyeol knowing. “If Kyungsoo likes him then...I don’t know, it makes me feel like he’s not all that bad.”

“I don’t want to talk to Suho hyung,” Chanyeol spat, and Jongdae couldn’t blame him. He sighed.

“I’m sorry, Chanyeol. I don’t know.”

“I was thinking of asking for a transfer, maybe...” Chanyeol started. “Like I could go to another city and start from the bottom there. Then I’d probably be made to do paperwork for a while. Or I could-- I could always ask to go to China, couldn’t I?” He sniffled. “Do you guys need more people there...?”

Jongdae thought about it. He thought that their office seemed kind of understaffed, but he also had no idea how many underlings they had running around the city. “Maybe, I don’t know.” He blinked. “If you think it would help you, then I say give it a shot.”

“Baekhyun will be mad at me.”

“Baekhyun would want what’s best for you, I know that. Don’t worry about Baekhyun.”

“Ahh...Jongdae...” Chanyeol said, and then didn’t follow it up with anything. Jongdae smiled.

“You know, I just found out today that I’m gonna go on my first field mission, too.”

Chanyeol made a choking sound. “What, really? What are you doing?”

“I think I’m just delivering drugs somewhere. It doesn’t really sound that scary but I’m really scared anyway.”

“Are you going by yourself?”

“No, I’m going with Yixing.”

Chanyeol sounded vaguely amused. “Ahh, that’s good, you have a crush on him, don’t you?”

Jongdae squawked and immediately thought to deny it, but then thought about it. Why was he so against the idea of having a crush on Yixing if it wasn’t getting him anywhere? He was going to have a crush whether he admitted it or not. “Yeah, I guess I do, but that doesn’t mean anything, not if we’re just working together.”

“But you’ll get to spend time with him, ahhh,” Chanyeol teased, and he sounded so much like his old self that Jongdae couldn’t even be upset with him.

“I have to be in a car with him tomorrow for like, ten hours. He’s gonna want to kill me by the end of it. I’m going to die for sure tomorrow, Chanyeol.”

“He better not! He can’t kill you before I come over there and work with you,” Chanyeol said defiantly, and Jongdae laughed at the sound.

“Ahh, that makes me feel better. I feel safe now.”

“Why-- why am I comforting you right now,” Chanyeol questioned, “when I’m literally in fucking tears. I-- I fucking called you and I’m crying, ugh, I feel like such a loser.”

Jongdae laughed out loud again. “Don’t feel bad! I don’t give a fuck, Chanyeol, I’m fucking glad you reached out to me. Don’t feel bad. You had a really shitty day. Like not many other people can say they’ve gone through what you have.”

“That...that’s true,” Chanyeol said, and then he sighed. “Fuck. I feel better. You calmed me down.”

“I’m glad.”

“If I ever feel bad again I’m going to call you, is that alright?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Whenever. During the day, late at night, I don’t care. If you need to talk to someone I will answer this phone and talk to you, I promise.” It was the least Jongdae could do, since he was a country away from his best friend. He didn’t think it would be too hard to counsel Chanyeol at all.

“Thank you, Jongdae,” Chanyeol said warmly. Jongdae was glad to hear him sounding so alive.

“Anytime.”

“I’m going to go to bed, then, because it’s kind of late here...I don’t know what time it is where you are...”

Jongdae blinked. “Oh, I’m only an hour ahead of you. Alright, cool. I’ll talk to you later, then, I’ll probably talk to you tomorrow when I get home from work.” Jongdae sighed. “If I ever get home from work.”

“You’ll get home from work, ahh, don’t be like that. Goodnight, Jongdae.”

“Goodnight, sleep well.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course. Stop thanking me, after a while it doesn’t mean anything,” Jongdae warned, and Chanyeol snorted at him.

“That’s not true. Fuck you. Bye,” he said, and Jongdae smiled as he listened to the call end. Chanyeol sounded a lot better at the end of that than he did than the beginning, and Jongdae was a little proud of himself for that. Talking to Chanyeol had made him feel a little bit better about his upcoming mission, too.

At least if he watched Yixing kill someone he’d have someone who would sympathize with him, he shuddered to think as he called Suho’s number again. That was an outlandish thought and he shouldn’t entertain it.

Suho answered the call and Jongdae wanted to get it over with quickly. “Hey, Suho hyung, I’m off the phone.”

“How’s Chanyeol?” Suho asked, and Jongdae blinked.

“He’s fine.” That was a lie but he didn’t really want to get into it with Suho anyway. “I think I’m going to head to bed now. You should probably go to bed soon too.”

“Ahh...” Suho sounded a little caught off-guard but Jongdae wasn’t going to worry about it. “Alright. Thanks for calling me back, at least.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t lie to you. Goodnight, Suho hyung, thanks for calling,” Jongdae tried to get out quickly, and as soon as he heard Suho say goodbye he shut the phone off and put it down. There. He wasn’t going to go to bed, that had been a lie, but a necessary one. He didn’t feel too bad about lying to his boss and he was a little amused by that.

Maybe if Suho and Sehun were dating for real, then Suho would stop bothering him for sex. That would be good, because Jongdae was mostly sure he wasn’t interested in that anymore. He was going to have to find someone else to sleep with and whatever, that didn’t seem too difficult. He liked a challenge sometimes.

He wasn’t really desperate to have sex, anyway. He had done a lot of that back in Korea and was kind of sated for now. He had no idea how he was supposed to go about finding a partner in a country where he barely knew how to speak the language, anyway. Maybe he could get one of his friends from work to take him to a club, and then he laughed. He was pretty sure Lu Han was gay. Maybe he could talk to him sometime.

Just the thought of asking _Lu Han_ to take him to a gay club was laughable and he cackled at himself. That wouldn’t work, Lu Han would end up getting all the attention and Jongdae wouldn’t get anything. Shit. He really didn’t know a lot of people.

Whatever! It wasn’t a big deal to him. He wasn’t going to worry about it. He had a big day ahead of him tomorrow, a high-stress day with a lot of anxiety around it, so he wanted to relax on the couch right now. He tried to find a slower-paced show on the television, and when he couldn’t find anything he sighed and shut it off, reaching for his phone. He could just listen to music and decompress. If he was going to be running around tomorrow then he wanted to just take it easy right now.

 

 


End file.
